By Robert Wilonsky March 16, 2000

It's again that time of year, when we gather to praise Bart Weiss for keeping afloat the Dallas Video Festival against all odds (the odds being, in this case, a city in which culture means Mark Cuban). In its 13th year, the DVF has yet to make Weiss a rich man; indeed, Weiss makes his living teaching videomaking. The festival is his passion, not his paycheck. And, after all this time, it remains his vision: There is no committee, no jury behind this. Weiss alone decides which submissions -- and there were between 350 and 400 this year -- make it into the festival and which do not. The reason, Weiss explains, is a simple one: "Everything in the festival I like, and there's a reason for showing it," he says. "It's a quirky reflection of the quirky kind of person I am and the... More >>>